Weird fermentation. Fermentation complete?

I started an extract batch of stout about three days ago.

The first day the fermentation was crazy! My bucket could barely contain it. Then overnight the fermentation slowed down drastically. Today the airlock is bubbling about every 3 minutes.

My OG was 1.044, and today I checked and it was 1.018. I plugged this into a brew calculator and it gave me an ABV of about 3.1%.

Do you think the fermentation is complete? Or could fermentation still be ongoing?

Ps. sorry for all the questions
Thanks

Don't be sorry. You need the same Hydrometer reading three days in a row to be absolutely sure.

Seems awfully fast to me. Do you have a Hydrometer??

Yup, I took a hydrometer reading today, and It was 1.018, it started at 1.044.

Your beer is NOT done fermenting. And even if it were, a stout needs more than 48 hours in the fermenter in order to mellow. Hang out, give it a few weeks, THEN bottle. (Or Keg.)

I was planning on transferring it to a secondary after about a week, and keep it in the secondary for about 15 days

Consider giving it two weeks in the primary? No one has EVER encountered a problem with autolysis in just two weeks, and you'll have a much mellower beer. PLUS, if there IS a problem, at least you won't wonder if you should have waited longer.

What would be the advantage of leaving it in the primary for two weeks? To ensure adequate fermentation?

I'm no expert, having only followed this site for a couple of months, but extra time in the primary gives the yeast adequate time to do their necessary "clean-up" work. Until recently, my brews have always had a "not quite done" taste to them, but since I've left them in the primary a little longer, the taste has improved quite a bit.

Vorsicht709 said:

What would be the advantage of leaving it in the primary for two weeks? To ensure adequate fermentation?

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The answer is easily provided in Palmer's How to brew...

How To Brew said:

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.

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Thie yeast are really tenacious creatures and if left to their own devices like to actually clean p after themselves,. They like to go back and eat the byproducts of normal and abnormal fermenatations.

If you leave then alone...not rush the beer to a secondary, or to bottles, then can swim along cleaning up many of the stuff that leads to off flavors...

That's why many of us skp secondary and leave our beer alone in primary for a month....

Revvy said:

That's why many of us skp secondary and leave our beer alone in primary for a month....

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And some of us still do a secondary after a 2-3 week primary. I can never avoid sucking up yeast when racking, no matter how careful I try to be, so a secondary still gets me a clearer beer, and the longer primary gives me a better tasting beer and less suspended yeast going into secondary.

How long do you secondary after a 2-3 week primary??

As a general rule, for non-specialty beers, I shoot for 2 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary, and 2 weeks in the bottle. If the beer has particularly complex flavor components (viz. a spice or fruit beer,) I might consider leaving it in the secondary for an extra week or two.

Let that puppy sit in the primary for 3-4 weeks then rack to a keg or your bottling bucket. Pending on what yeast you used the cake should be packed enough you will not pull much off the bottom. As for clearing in a secondary, it is a stout how clear do you want it? With my stouts I will let them sit in a keg for 2-3 months to mature. And as with beer your last pull will be the best usually.